A federal judge in San Francisco finds the Office of Personnel Management unlawfully directed agencies to fire probationary federal employees en masse.

U.S District Court Judge William Alsup ruled late Friday that OPM “exceeded its own powers,” and “directed agencies to fire under false pretense,” telling probationary employees that they were being terminated for poor performance.

The ruling doesn’t reinstate any of the 25,000 probationary federal employees fired around mid-February, but it does direct many agencies to update their personnel records to specify that these employees were not fired for poor performance or misconduct. Agencies must also send letters to impacted employees stating they were not fired for performance issues.

The ruling, in a lawsuit led by federal employee unions, applies to the departments of Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Treasury, Transportation and Agriculture. OPM, NASA, the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget are exempt from the ruling.

OPM told the court that it was merely providing guidance, not orders, to fire nearly all federal employees still serving in their probationary period, except for the highest performers in “mission-critical” roles. Alsup, however, determined that “OPM decided who to fire,” and “OPM decided when to fire.”

“That directive was unlawful,” Alsup wrote.

Alsup wrote that under normal circumstances, his ruling would invalidate OPM’s mass-firing directive, and would return terminated employees to their posts. But the Supreme Court ruled in July that the Trump administration has broad authority to reshape and shrink the federal workforce.

”The Supreme Court has made clear enough by way of its emergency docket that it will overrule judicially granted relief respecting hirings and firings within the executive, not just in this case but in others,” he wrote.

In any case, Alsup wrote that reinstatement would unlikely provide much relief, because terminated probationary employees “have moved on with their lives and found new jobs.”

”Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts. The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization. Many probationers would have no post to return to,” he added.

However, the judge’s ruling states that fired probationary employees “nevertheless continue to be harmed by OPM’s pretextual termination ‘for performance,’ and that harm can be redressed without reinstatement.” 

Alsup is directing most agencies to update their personnel files to state that probationary employees were not fired for performance or conduct. Agencies have until Nov. 14 to update these personnel records.

“Nothing in this order prohibits any federal agency from terminating any employee so long as the agency makes that decision on its own, does not use the OPM template termination notice, and is otherwise in compliance with applicable law,” he wrote.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the ruling “another significant victory for federal employees and for all Americans.”

“Judge Alsup’s decision makes clear that thousands of probationary workers were wrongfully fired, exposes the sham record the government relied upon, and requires the government to tell the wrongly terminated employees that OPM’s reasoning for firing them was false,” Kelley said in a statement Monday.

OPM Director Scott Kupor wrote in his blog on Monday, citing other recent federal workforce cases, that “a central tenet of President Trump’s administration is to improve the efficiency and accountability of the federal workforce and to ensure we can attract and retain exceptional civil servants.

“For too long federal spend has traveled in only one direction – more dollars and more headcount – without a focus on whether we are doing the most important things on behalf of the American people at the most efficient cost. In addition, the government has been hampered in its ability to hire based on merit,” Kupor wrote.